


Entire Universes, Expanding and Collapsing

by TheShipMaker



Category: Hades (Video Game 2018)
Genre: Can you tell I use run ons for tone or did my run ons fry your brain too much to notice, I just started writing a headcanon and then suddenly I was writing this, I literally haven't posted since 2015 I hope this is okay, Look idk what came over me, This fic is built on a foundation of run-on sentences I'm soRRY, also Hades is SHOOK, i tried to add a lil bit of the narrator's pretentious flare in there, just a teaspoon though
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-07
Updated: 2021-02-07
Packaged: 2021-03-12 05:22:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 667
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29255157
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheShipMaker/pseuds/TheShipMaker
Summary: The House of Hades shook violently for a moment, as if struck by Zeus' thunder. All froze, the house silent and still. Even Lord Hades, quill mid-stroke upon his parchmentwork, stopped.And then, from the Prince's chambers, emerged a god.
Comments: 9
Kudos: 61





	Entire Universes, Expanding and Collapsing

The House of Hades shook violently for a moment, as if struck by Zeus' thunder. All froze, the house silent and still. Even Lord Hades, quill mid-stroke upon his parchmentwork, stopped.  
  
And then, from the Prince's chambers, emerged a god.  
  
Surrounded by a pulsating glow, the figure moved slowly towards the center hall, their movements strange. One moment they seemed to dance, the next they were in a full sprint, then suddenly they were crouching, but no, they were marching, or were they merely walking? They were difficult to look at - their form shifted endlessly, one moment the height and build of a child, the next as tall as any Olympian, then hunched over, frail and old, before shifting again. But their eyes, their eyes were entire universes expanding and collapsing, stars forming and then dying in violent supernovas, only for the remains to gather and form stars anew.

They were standing upon the house sigil, now, and turned to face the desk of Lord Hades.  
  
"Father," the being said with a small nod of acknowledgement, their voice the high voice of a child, the pitchy croak of an adolescent, the powerful voice of a young man, the knowing voice of an older man, the soft voice of the elderly. All of it, all at once, and yet undeniable in all its forms was that it was the voice of Zagreus.  
  
The House gasped in unison; even Lord Hades himself, who seemed to be struggling to find where the head of the ever shifting being was.  
  
"Zagreus?" Lord Hades confirmed, voice barely above a whisper, and far from the booming confidence everyone had come to expect.  
  
Zagreus' form gave the impression of a smirk before leaning forward, slamming a hand upon the desk. Somehow, Zagreus was barely able to reach it and too tall to reach it without leaning down, simultaneously.  
  
This did not make it any less intimidating.  
  
"The next time you deign to think of me as lesser, to think of me as beneath you, to think of me as _worthless,_ " Zagreus' endless voice echoed through the House, shouting and whispering and speaking all at once, grief-driven and warbling, laughing in delight, sighing in contentment, deafening rage and drunken shouts, love confessions and broken apologies, the desperate plea of a dying man, the joyous tone of announcing a pregnancy, all of life's experiences rolled together, "I would like you to remember one thing, Father."  
  
Zagreus leaned forward, head barely crossing the ledge and straining on his tiptoes, hand holding his weight up upon the desk and head turned down in exhaustion, arm bent in support and bowing down to tower above Lord Hades.  
  
Zagreus then seemed to take a large breath, and his form slowly stopped shifting as much. He was still young and old and everything in between, but he was much easier to comprehend, now, the shifting appearing to take place _around_ a central form. Looking far more like the Zagreus the House knew, but tall as any Olympian, still glowing, still emanating raw divinity. He leaned further, face next to Lord Hades' ear.  
  
He whispered something, then. Something that made the ichor drain from Hades' face, made the quill in his hand snap, made the faintest tremble become visible in his shoulders-  
  
Then Zagreus straightened, and suddenly he was just Zagreus again, regular Prince of the Underworld, walking up to coo at and pet the left-most of Cerberus' heads. Hades slowly rose from his seat, dismissed the court in a monotone voice, and excused himself to his chambers.  
  
Many would ask Zagreus what he had whispered to his Lord Father, and over time, many would figure out on their own what the general message probably was.

But only Lord Hades himself would know the spine-chilling, humbling terror of hearing the God of Rebirth, in all their raw and powerful form, whisper to you personally:

**_"I_ _t is by my grace, and my grace alone, that you rise from the Styx upon death."_ **

**Author's Note:**

> Did y'all know that in Greek mythology, (at least the Cthonic version) Zagreus is the god of Rebirth?
> 
> 10 bucks says someone at Supergiant was on a wikipedia rabbit hole, found Zagreus, and said "yo wouldn't that be perfect as like the protag of a rogue-like cause the whole point is dying and coming back"
> 
> Also my hc is that Zag realized he was the god of rebirth afrer having an existential crisis in his room after learning from achilles that fishing KILLS FISH and that the fish he turns in are dead so why are they alive in the aquarium whAT
> 
> I will write that out if yall would like but no promises


End file.
